Barrow of the Forgotten King

In the last few sessions of my Swords & Wizardry campaign, the players have been delving their way through the Barrow of the Forgotten King. This is based fairly closely on the D&D 3.5 edition of the adventure of the same name. Of course, I had to make a number of changes because it was written for the 3.5 edition of D&D and for much lower character levels (2nd level). I also created all-new maps more suited for online play.

The Barrow of the Forgotten King is considered one of the classics, but it has a very peculiar layout. The entire adventure is presented in a summary format and then each "tactical encounter" is presented at the back of the product in a 2-3 page detailed layout with detailed maps that assume miniatures are going to be used. I found it very annoying when I was rewriting the adventure for my own use (in a more traditional linear format). I cannot imagine trying to run this as is straight from the published product. I believe this was the first and last time this format was used.

Session 73: Barrow of the Forgotten King

Lakima (human magic-user), Eathwund (human fighter), Aashdoshan (human necromancer), Alonso (human fighter), Lantosh (human fighter NPC), Fenris the Filch (human thief NPC), Domago (human cleric), and Vervork (human fighter).

The adventurers have arrived at Hauger Keep in Hookhollow, the home of their fellow adventurer Vervork. They spend the night in the keep.

The next morning the adventurers meet with Lord Roland and Vervork. Lakima asks if they can all see Roland’s son Vilhelm. He is reluctant as his son is near death but once Lakima tells him that he believes they might have a cure, he insists they immediately go to his son. Lakima, Domago, and Aashdoshan go to see Vilhelm. The boy is unconscious in bed with his mother Yelda at his side. A local priest greets them at the door. Lakima checks the boy and then pours a neutralize poison potion down his throat. After a few moments color begins to return to the boy’s face and then his eyes flicker open. The boy calls out for his mother. Roland thanks Lakima effusively as does Yelda. Within an hour Vilhelm is sitting up in bed and eating soup. Soon he asks if he can go outside to ride his horse. But his mother and the priest will have none of that.

The full group meets with Roland in the Great Hall of the Keep again. Lakima tells Vervork and Roland that he believes tomb robbers are the ones who poisoned Vilhelm to get their hands on Valdemar’s Journal. This would allow them to find their way through the traps beneath the Forgotten King’s barrow. Vervork says he wants to leave immediately to track down and kill the people who killed his brother Yandel. Roland tries to counsel against this.

There is little chance of any other decision. Vervork will join the Company of the Black Dragon on the trail of the mysterious tomb robbers. Vervork takes them to the west tower of the keep and points out the low mounds barely a mile to the west. He explains that there are four mounds. Traditionally called the King, Queen, Prince, and Cleft barrows. The names were applied long after the barrows were abandoned. He is not sure which one is the Barrow of the forgotten King but they will know they are in the correct one if they find a large mausoleum. The entrance to the Forgotten King’s barrow was used as a crypt by the village of Hookhollow before his ancestor Valdemar found a way past the something he called the Beholder puzzle in his journal. He does not know the details of the puzzle. After Valdemar’s child died because of the Curse the villagers stopped using the crypt.

Since the barrows are so near the company of eight men set out over the fields on foot. Arriving at the barrows Fenris scouts ahead and notes many tracks but Vervork tells him it is probably from the men who found and brought back the body of his older brother Yandel. Lakima points at the Prince’s Barrow and suggests they start the search with that one. A narrow tunnel into the barrow leads to stone steps down into a crypt. Vervork immediately recognizes that they have entered the old mausoleum. They have found the correct barrow on the first try.

In the first chamber, they see a crumbling room. Four skeletons lie out on stone biers. Lying in the center of the room lies a human corpse. As everyone slowly advances, Fenris checks the corpse. It is that of a young woman warrior clad in leather armor, a sword sheathed at her side. She has two arrows in her chest. Aashdoshan looks at the four skeletons and reaches out with his necromantic powers to raise them. But he immediately realizes they have already been raised. Aashdoshan shouts a warning just as the four skeletons begin to rise from the platforms. Lantosh is caught by surprise and struck with a rusty blade. Aashdoshan quickly wrests control of the skeletons from whoever else raised them. The four skeletons are now dominated by Aashdoshan. Fenris continues checking the warrior’s corpse and finds a silver badge of crossed arrows. The symbol means nothing to any of the adventurers, but Lakima muses that she might be a ranger.

Fenris advances into the chamber with Lantosh a short distance behind to provide light from his lantern. The chamber is L-Shaped, and as Fenris turns the corner, he spots five more skeletons. He backs away as Lantosh, Alonso, Vervork, and Eathwund move in to take care of the skeletons. Lakima casts Glow Minion and summons a servant of Light to help illuminate the area. Both Alonso and Eathwund destroy a pair of skeletons while one of the skeletons controlled by Aashdoshan destroys the last skeleton. Aashdoshan raises two more skeletons to increase his army of the dead to six skeletons. In the fight with the skeletons, Alonso does take a nasty slash to the chest. Fenris checks some of the crypts lining the walls of the chamber and tells everyone that many of them have been broken into and looted of everything, even the bodies.

A stone door leads from the chamber. Fenris is unable to figure out how to open it as it has no handles or hinges. Vervork is able to shove it open. Beyond they see another long chamber lined with crypts. On the north wall are a fountain and the statue of an angel. A corridor leads north and a door blocks passage to the south. Eathwund manages to manhandle the door leading south open. Lakima sends the Glow Minion through the open door into a small chamber. Fenris follows and declares that there is a statue of a magic-user covered in cobwebs. There are also two stone coffins. Fenris asks some of the strong fighters to help him open the coffins. But Lakima casts Detect Magic and tells them not to enter. The statue is showing a strong magic aura. He suspects it is a protector of the crypt.

“We are here on a mission, not as tomb robbers”, states Lakima. Fenris protests a little.

The corridor leads to another blank stone door. Fenris is unable to find a means of opening it and each of the fighters is unable to budge it. Lakima casts Detect Magic and discovers the door is Wizard Locked and covered by an illusion. He tries to cast Read Magic but it fails. Aashdoshan is able to cast Read Magic and he sees the image of a beholder carved into the stone doors. Each of its eye stocks ends in a strange tile. Below the image is a riddle. Aashdoshan takes a sheet of parchment and copies out the words:

Magic Dies Fast Men Slow the passage you seek below.

Eye of death, eye of stone the key to passage they haven’t shown

Fear and mind you can say will move you around in the wrong way

Friends are shy, sleep in rest. Neither points to the passage that’s best.

Enemy friend painful wound oblivion aids it is ruined.

Lakima casts Dispel Magic and is able to remove the spell holding the door. It slides to one side. Inside they find an octagonal chamber. The floor in this chamber is covered in stone tiles. Some of these tiles have images painted on them depicting men. It matches the tiles Aashdoshan saw on the door. In the center of the chamber is a large stone eye looking at the ceiling. Lakima casts Detect Magic and sees that the tiles and the eye are all radiating magic. The eye is projecting a dispel magic field.

Lakima suggests that the tiles need to be stepped on in the proper order to open a door to continue. Vervork tells them that Valdemar’s journal mentioned the riddle of the beholder. But he has not viewed the book since he was a child and he cannot recall the solution to the riddle. Lakima asks Aashdoshan to direct one of his skeletons to step on a tile. Nothing appears to happen at first but they realize the skeleton has been slowed. Aashdoshan directs it to the central eye and the enchantment is dispelled. Another tile is found to vaporize a skeleton into ashes. All of the heroes step carefully back from the tiles.

Over the next hour, Lakima and Aashdoshan try to solve the riddle. Using the skeletons, they test many of the tiles. They find only two of the tiles they tested seem to have any effect. Fenris notices that the tiles are loose and could be moved. Lakima becomes convinced that they need to be paired and the riddle must show the order. They try some more but the death ray tile is in the first pair and two more skeletons are vaporized.

Eathwund hesitantly makes a suggestion, “Maybe they need to be put in the order on the image?” Aashdoshan tells Eathwund that they are already in that order. But when they recheck his sketch, they realize they are not in order. Lakima excitedly tells Aashdoshan to have the skeletons move the four tiles that are out of order. A skeleton easily picks up a tile and moves it. Then moves the rest. As the last tile is placed down in the order on the image, the stone eye rapidly descends revealing a shaft leading down thirty feet.

Fenris descends on a rope and yells back that it is another small chamber with an exit. The rest of the adventurers and Aashdoshan’s three remaining skeletons descend. A corridor leads down over three flights of steps. Fenris takes the lead with the Glow Minion behind him. As he reaches the third landing, he is startled to see an enormous Ogre standing mutely against a wall. The eyes of the ogre open and it moves toward him. Fenris realizes that the ogre has gaping wounds on its body. It is an enormous zombie. Yelling “Zombie!’ Fenris flees from the chamber back through the group. Alonso takes his place and holds the enormous zombie at bay with his magic spear, striking it in the chest. Eathwund joins him and lights his sword on fire, swinging it at the ogre-zombie. Lakima hurls some darts at it. The zombie swings an enormous club at Alonso and smashes the puny human fighter against the wall. Alonso struggles to his feet and attacks again. But the ogre swings the club in a huge arc once more and smashes Alonso again knocking him back several feet. Eathwund slashes the zombie again with his flaming sword and it staggers. Aashdoshan tries to use Banish undead but the creature resists him. Then he casts Magic missile from his wand. The bolts of fire blacken the creature. Eathwund strikes it a third time and a magical dagger thrown by Aashdoshan hits it in its magical source. The creature collapses in a huge mound of flesh.

The adventurers scramble over the large corpse into the next chamber. Fenris checks the exit from the chamber and reports that they have to cross a bottomless pit. As the others join him, they see that a rope bridge extends across the pit. Fenris checks it and reports that the bridge is sound. It appears to have been put up by the tomb robbers they are chasing. The Glow Minion is sent across the chasm without incident. Fenris then sprints across easily. Eathwund is about to go next but he realizes that the rope bridge is very precarious. Lakima tells him to step aside and he casts Luminous Bridge. A bridge of light extends across the chasm. Everyone crosses the bridge easily.

On the other side of the bridge, they come to a dead end. Lakima takes out his Wand of Secret Door Detection and finds a door in one wall. Fenris is able to open it. Inside is a small chamber with a stone lever in the up position. After some debate with the others, he decides to pull it. A wall slides aside revealing an enormous octagonal chamber.

The chamber has partition walls extending partway out from each wall joint. In the center of the room, they see a pair of hobgoblin corpses blackened by fire. The entire center area is covered in black ash. Fenris peers around a wall and reports there are two enormous dragon statues sitting to either side of their entrance. Their heads pointed toward the fire damage in the center of the room. Also in the room are the statue of a princess and a warrior. On the far wall is a stone door. The Glow Minion is sent into the center of the room and nothing happens. One of the skeletons is sent into the center of the room and the dragons breathe fire. The skeleton is incinerated.

Fenris climbs onto the walls and makes his way around the chamber. He examines both statues depicting humans but does not find anything. Then he makes his way to the door. It is another unmarked stone door.

A second skeleton is sent around the chamber skirting the middle of the room and ducking under a dragon skeleton. It makes it without triggering the fire trap so the rest of the team of adventurers follow its path. Eventually, they are all at the door. The fighters take turns shoving the door but they are not able to open it. Eventually, Fenris tries and he opens it easily. Beyond is a small chamber and two stone doors separated by five feet. Fenris manages to open the south door. A wave of moisture and mildew smell pours out of the opening. There is a distant sound of running water. Fenris checks and tells them it is a short hall leading to a ladder going down. Lakima suggests trying the other door.

The other door is opened and Fenris and the Glow Minion lead the way. A short hallway leads to a large room. The adventurers discover they have entered high up on a balcony overlooking a canal fifteen feet below. A bridge crosses the canal. On both sides of the canal are five stone statues of warriors. On the far side from them, they see the corpses of two hobgoblins. Also, two broken statues. Lakima tells everyone that the statues will probably animate and attack. At the far end of this balcony, he spots a stone door.

“Hurry, everyone to the door!”

They begin to move toward the door but the water in the canal erupts in a geyser. A serpent made entirely of water rises up from the canal. The head of the creature is as big as a full-grown dragon. The water weird looks at them at speaks in a strange bubbling voice:

"More intruders. Leave this place the way you came, or face the price of your folly, as have those before you.”

Stunned, everyone stops for a moment and then retreats back to the hallway. Except for the Glow Minion which does not receive instruction to move. A vote is taken on whether to continue on and fight the creature. They decide to go on. Fenris moves down the ladder so he can flank the creature from the other side. The heroes move out on the balcony and prepare to defend themselves. The creature speaks again and threatens all robbers of this tomb. Lakima tells it that they are not tomb robbers. They are chasing the tomb robbers and plan to apprehend them. The creature seems suspicious at first. It extends itself to be within five feet of them and slowly moves down the line of adventurers looking at each of them. At Vervork it tells him it has smelled him before. Vervork tells it that that was an ancestor. It lingers on Lakima telling him it does not trust him. But standing beside Lakima is Domago and the creature says it does trust him. It tells them they can depart without a fight. Then it drops back down into the canal.

Everyone quickly leaves the chamber via the door in the north wall. Fenris is last as he has to make his way across the chamber. He stops and checks the bodies of the hobgoblins and pockets a few items. Then he quickly runs across the bridge and up a stair. The door leads to a chamber with a zig-zag wall pattern. Along the north side of the room are four statues of warriors in front of closed crypts. Fenris checks a few and reports that they have been opened and looted. At the end of the hall, they find some evidence of a camp for several humanoids and a stone door.

The door opens into a wide hallway. At both ends of the hall, a passage enters from the east but both passages are fifteen feet lower. Iron ladders lead down. Fenris and the Glow Minion again take the lead, Lantosh and Eathwund come next. They head down a hallway with a ceiling far above. As it rounds a corner, Fenris sees more than a dozen skeleton warriors waiting for them. One skeleton is clad in heavy plate mail armor. Fenris tries to yell out an alarm but no sounds come from his mouth. The skeletons rush toward him and he is forced to flee toward a hole he sees in a far wall. Bricks have been removed from the wall to create the hole. The rest of the adventurers file into the chamber and are attacked by a horde of skeletons. Aashdoshan sends his skeletons forward to defend them adding to the confusion. Aashdoshan tries to cast a spell but he finds he also cannot make a sound. Eathwund and Alonso push to the front and begin smashing down skeletons. The fight continues in eerie silence. Swords hit swords without making a sound. Alerted to what is happening, Lakima casts Shield on himself before entering the room. 

Fenris is stabbed twice before he is able to hide in a tunnel that goes down at a steep angle. Eathwund and Alonso destroy most of the skeletons. In the confusion, one of Aashdoshan’s skeletons is destroyed by Alonso. Lantosh is hit twice by skeletons. Lakima finds himself surrounded and lashes out with his Staff of Striking exploding skeletons. His shield spell protects him. The armored skeleton stabs Alonso in the back when he is engaged with other skeletons. This apparent leader proves a lot tougher than a normal skeleton. Eathwund and Alonso strike it repeatedly with little effect. Lakima hits it with his Staff as well. In the end, the skeleton leader falls and once that happens, sound returns to the chamber. The remaining four skeletons continue attacking but now everyone can hear the battle. Aashdoshan shouts for everyone to hold as he takes control of the skeletons and then de-animates them shortly after.

A badly wounded Fenris drags himself out of the hole in the wall. He reports that he can hear the sound of splashing water at the bottom of the shaft he was in. The rest of the group looks about and decides to rest a few moments.